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Cassian has been accepted by psyker society for a while now. He hasn't done anything morally wrong by Lampas standards, and he's got a clean track record. Gadam Vilzone earned a better reputation, too. Psykers learned of their will restrictors and Driver even offered to make some for them so long as members of their Vilzone were not attacked (unless they broke his rules). People were hesitant, but a few months have passed of Gadam Vilzone and Lampas working in harmony. Cassian just had to deal with it for now. This didn't mean he forgave them for anything.
Uchan eventually found out his civilian identity, too. It wasn't long until Cassian had to tell him about his true identity. He didn't take it well, but he got over it.
Uchan's phone rang again, for the third time while he was in the shower. He couldn't stress enough how much Daewung annoyed him sometimes. He stepped out, wrapping a towel around his waist as he finally picked up the call.
"Uchan! Uchan! There's two villains down at Seoul Station, psykers have arrived but most are wiped out! Come qu-" The phone abruptly cut him off with static.
"Daewung? Daewung!"
There was no sound coming from Daewung on the other side of the call other than the sounds of falling and crashing debris. He could hear shouts too. If he picked out the noises, he could hear specific psykers.
Though there were two noises he just couldn't match.
A low grumble, and the sounds of strings.
Uchan had no time to ponder over it. He dried his hair and dressed in his uniform, almost breaking down the door as he ran to the scene. It was horrific.
There were bodies splattered in blood, their guts roughly thrown out of their bodies. Some had missing eyes that were tossed almost 15 feet away. There were deformed corpses, either missing a limb or a limb being rotated in a way humanely impossible. The psykers that were still standing were heavily injured. Daewung's phone was dropped haphazardly onto the ground, where he can see the screen of their previous call shattered. Daewung, however, was nowhere to be found. In the center of the scene, there were two villains. One looking like the mastermind behind this massacre and the other being—
"Cassian!"
There was no response from the person, but the mastermind glared at Uchan. In his hand, he held what puppets would have to be controlled, a marionette controller made of two planks of wood. The villian he recognized to be Marionette.
"Do you know him, dear puppet?" 'Cassian' slowly turned around to look at Uchan. His body looked as stiff as a doll.
"No." That's when he saw it. The marionette controller the villain was using was in coordination with Cassian's movements. When Cassian turned his head, Marionette subtlety turned the remote in the same direction. With Marionette's free hand, it was opening and closing fingers like a mouth. There was a drawing of Cassian's exact face markings on the hands. At least Uchan knew that whatever he was saying or doing wasn't of his own free will.
From behind Marionette, another psyker tried attacking him. The psyker was B+ rank at least, but with just a turn of the remote he was stabbed straight through the skull with one of Cassian's moves. Shadow Slicer.
"My my! What a low move for a psyker! Say, my dear puppet, how do you feel about psykers?"
"Rats."
"Ah! I agree!" Marionette stroked Cassian's face in admiration and Uchan had to hold back bile from rising in his throat. The two had met up last night. Uchan wouldn't call it a date but both of them knew damn well it was. Not even 12 hours later, his 'boyfriend' was supposedly on a massacre.
Cassian felt like he was falling, but he didn't know into what. Even with a darkness affinity he couldn't see a thing. It reminded him of his death as Cassian Lee, but he pushed that thought aside. What was going on? He felt oddly at ease in this pitch black darkness.
With a sudden surge, the memories came flooding back.
He met up with Uchan. He was happy, then went on a date, and he dropped him off back at his place where his sister poked fun at him for dating a villain. He insisted they were not dating. He and Naeun shared a look and chuckled, Uchan was thoroughly annoyed.
On his way back home, he heard the cry of a old lady. He couldn't just ignore it, so he ran to the source of the noise to find a small puppet of an old lady. He didn't know where the sound earier was coming from, but he felt a chill run down his spine. He went into his villain form before being promptly knocked out by something. He couldn't remember what it was but it was blunt enough that it didn't do too much damage.
He remembered the muffled noise of a person 'ooing' and 'ahhing' at him. There was a gag in his mouth and his hands were tied up with military-grade barbed wire. Moving his hands too much would effectively cut them off. He vision felt like he was looking through stained glass, the blurriness never clearing up.
He was outside now, but he didn't feel in his own body. He had blood on his hands, but that was normal. When he moved, it felt like he was spectating himself instead of controlling his own limbs.
Now he was here. Falling through a void of what he presumed to be his mind. For hating Lampas so much, he took their 'rational thinking' quotes to the next life.
If he focused just enough, he could go and spectate again. Looking through your own eyes like a videogame felt horrible.
It was still blurry, but he could make out three silhouettes. The guy from before, who Cassian dubbed 'weirdo,' Uchan(?), and a psyker—
He watched as a Shadow Slicer pierced straight through the man's skull. He watched as he turned back around to weirdo, then to Uchan. He watched as his face turned from disgust to horror. He watched. He could only watch. Not able to stop anything. Just watch. He watched as he himself felt useless.
The B+ psyker's body went limp, suspended by the dark blade sticking out from the ground. He could've thrown up then and there, but he heard a familiar voice shouting his name. Jiho Seo.
"Uchan! Dodge!"
He acted on his words, a Shadow Slicer barely missing him.
"We have to engage in battle, kiddos!"
Daewung.
He was glad he didn't have to fight Cassian alone. He was not glad he had to fight Cassian in the first place.
"Daewung! Cassian isn't himself! Marionette—"
"I figured that out a while ago, kid! But as much as he's not doing anything himself, he's still mutilated psykers!"
That's right. Cassian's a villain.
Villains must be exterminated.
There was no time right now to hold back.
In his head, he loved Gangu. With all his heart. Cassian, however, was a villain. He knows they're one in the same, he just can't seem to remember that right now.
Daewung unsheathed a new sword, different than that Northern Light sword. Jiho was on his left, hurriedly pumping them all with boosts. Gangu Cassian came running at them, Marionette was moving the controller in tune with his movements.
He moved it up.
An uppercut.
He moved it to the side.
Left uppercut.
He moved it both upwards and to the side.
A kick, straight to the liver.
Uchan stumbled, blood streaming down his nose. He held his side, the pain in the liver was pulsing and it hurt like hell. Daewung, in the corner of his eye, ignored Cassian, heading for Marionette instead.
"Hey, hey! It ain't me you're s'posed to be going after, it's my puppet! Go kill him, instead!" Marionette obviously had no fighting experience. He dodged with about as much grace as a wild boar.
Eventually, Daewung got him pinned down. Cassian was still vehemently attacking Uchan, who was being restored and healed over and over again by Jiho. Both of them were worn out, Uchan was going to go on a rampage.
Without any hesitation, he attacked.
"Hellfire!"
"Uchan, stop!" Daewung was too late.
The marionette controller over Cassian's head broke just before the flames hit him, his consciousness regained just as he felt the scorching on his skin.
He snapped out of his trance, realizing what he's just done.
"Cassian!" He ran up to where Cassian previously was, the smoke still covering his eyes. When he reached the spot, he was met with an unconscious Gangu, detransformed and with third-degree burns all over his body.
"Wake up, please! I'm so sorry!" Uchan dug his head in the crook of Cassian's neck, sobs racking his body. He felt a hand pat his hair before pulling away, hearing a wince from Cassian.
"That shit hurt, y'know." He looked up to see Cassian staring back, his eyes half-lidded and the smallest smile crossing his face before his face muscles started to cramp.
"Stay still, don't move anything." Uchan beckoned Jiho over, sweat crossing his face as he was about to overexert his healing abilites. Uchan covered Cassian's face with his coat, intent on keeping his identity hidden.
After a while, Cassian was healed to a point where he could slightly move his muscles. It was enough movement for Uchan able to carry him to a hospital. He needed him to transform back into Cassian for that to happen, though. Lampas would get suspicious if he carried a man that looked exactly like the villain with third-degree burns not long after he just used hellfire. Jiho left, leaving the two alone
Uchan didn't know how he was going to apologize to him after this.
"Uchan, it hurts. I need to transform."
"I need you to transform too. What's your trigger?"
"Anger."
"Get angry at me, then."
"What for?"
Uchan stared at him, dumbfounded. Was he being serious? He just inflicted the most gruesome burns on Cassian's body that it might scar for years and he's not angry?
"It was my fault this mess started. I fell into his trap-"
"-And I was the one that almost killed you!"
Uchan was crying, now. His voice wavered, unable to keep the tears out. When he opened his eyes again, Cassian was transformed.
"What-"
"I got angry at myself. Angry that I fell into that stupid trap, that I got kidnapped by that guy, that I couldn't do anything to stop this massacre," Cassian took one last look at Uchan.
"And that I made you cry."
Behind Uchan, Marionette was getting thrown into the back of a Lampas car, and 32 ambulances have already arrived on scene. A good chunk of them zipped up and carried bodies into the ambulances, while the others had to escort injured psykers to the nearest hospital. It didn't take long for an A ranking psyker to walk up to them.
"Hey, rookie, I'm gonna need to arrest him, too."
Uchan almost blasted his head off.
"For what, exactly?" He said, griting his teeth.
"Are you kidding? He just killed 27 psykers and you're asking why I need to take him away? What, are you two dating or something?"
Cassian chuckled at that, but Uchan didn't find it funny.
"He was being mind-controlled. He's innocent. None of the killings were his fault! Marionette's ability is to hypnotize people and act out his will, didn't he do something similar to this back in the states?"
"Jack Khalid. You're from the states. You were there when he committed the massacre." Cassian spoke with venom in his voice. Jack Khalid killed Jeff. He was also one of the reasons he died. He was one of the people that he wanted to take revenge on. Cassian was leaning up on his elbows, so he could see everything in full view.
"Quiet your voice, villain. Marionette may have been the mastermind, but it was you—"
"—who was being controlled." Daewung walked up into their conversation. He didn't have a fond idea of the Lampas version in the US, infact, they annoy him.
Jack Khalid stormed off in anger, Cassian stared as he walked off. Uchan could see in his eyes that he wanted nothing more than to murder the man, but right now, he was too injured to do anything about it.